The last time I wrote, many people were still unsure if Bros Icing Bros was a genius piece of viral marketing or a consumer trend that grew organically with the help of the internet. The rate at which Bros Icing Bros grew (less than two months from glimmer in a frat boy’s eye to an article in the New York Times) definitely made it seem like there was some sort of viral element to the game. However, I expressed serious doubts that any alcohol brand would desire association with (a) binge drinking and (b) people being forced to drink their beverage because of how terrible they think it is.
The Bros Icing Bros website disappeared two days ago; it’s replaced with a mostly blank page that says only “We had a good run Bros…” Some people speculated that the owner of brosicingbros.com voluntarily took the domain down because the joke was getting stale. In fact, Smirnoff owner Diageo confirms it was partially responsible for the take down of the website.
Smirnoff has to walk a tight line here. On one hand, it’s essential for the long term viability of their brand to avoid association with drinking games, binge drinking, and bad behavior. But this game, regardless of the creator, has created so much buzz around the Smirnoff Ice brand. Check out this chart on Google Trends of Smirnoff search volume versus two of the brand’s primary competitors, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Bacardi Breezer.
There is one way for Smirnoff to indirectly capitalize on the trend of icing while still distancing themselves from the binge drinking element. Presumably, if you iced someone or were iced by someone, you know that person pretty well. You probably even consider them a friend. The key here is that you were not iced by a complete stranger. If you iced or were iced, you took part in a social phenomenon that was shared by you, your friend, and all of America – and Smirnoff Ice was the catalyst.
The brand is damaged, don’t get me wrong. But tons of guys who never drank Smirnoff Ice (because they thought it for girls) now partially associate the brand with their friends and with having fun. There’s almost an indefinite amount of potential advertising Smirnoff can create to spoof the phenomenon. So what are your thoughts on this? Do you think Smirnoff Ice is irrparably damaged, or do you think the brand can bounce back even stronger than ever?